Re: Canadian Cricket Journalism - Errol Townshend

MIke McLean
e-mail: mmmmm127@hotmail.com

Your contributor to the debate on the standards of cricket in Canada, Errol Townsend, summarises his own piece as factual, honest and informed. To him it might well be and he is certainly entitled to his opinion. However, I'm tempted to describe it's tone as destructive and written in an almost hysterical, even vitriolic manner. Now I have never met Mr. Townsend although he does sound like a very interesting character, but I do support his right to state his opinion in which he obviously passionately believes.

And furthermore, Canadacricket.com has every right to print this. However, I would urge your editorial board to attempt to balance these comments by seeking that quality of information and factual evidence that Mr. Townsend espouses to. By this I mean to attempt, for example, to discover what went wrong against T and T, especially after a strong performance against Antigua, and a remarkable show of character against the RoW. It was this performance against a team captained by Darren Ganga that appears to have upset Mr. Townsend the most. Was it the wicket? Was it the occasion? If the latter, what better way to prepare than by testing one's fettle in this relatively obscure Red Stripe competition. having just watcxhed the Netherlands vs. Sri Lanka and Bangla Desh vs. New Zealand ODI's, I consider Canada to be every bit as good as Holland and am confident that Canada will win her opening match against bangla Desh in WC2003. I think the Mr. Townsend's criticisms of the wicketkeeper were particularly unfair. He was
considered the best keeper in the competition, and this was the opinion of hard-nosed commentators and ex-players, who had rarely seen a keeper standing up so close to the 'quicks' . He accumulated a considerable number of stumpings of the Windies batsmen, who just love to go onto the front foot! The comments from the Antigua on line broadcasters left one in no doubt about his talent. But I was also disappointed with the T and T result, and I'm sure everyone, team and supporters would share that view. Can the editors of Canadacricket.com do some old fashioned "investigative journalism" and help both Mr. townsend and I deal with our disappointment/surprise at this result?

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